Prehistoric Romeo and Juliet discovered

Archaeologists in Italy have dug a pair of human skeletons, their arms still wrapped around each other in an eternal embrace.

Archaeologists unearthed the skeletons dating back to the late Neolithic period outside Mantua, 25 miles south of Verona, the city of Shakespeare’s story of doomed love.

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, because their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.

Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site’s age and how old the two were when they died, she said. The finds will then go on display at Mantua’s Archaeological Museum.Establishing the cause of death could prove almost impossible, unless they were killed by a debilitating disease, a knife or something else that might have left marks on the bones.

The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, an indication of a possible sudden and tragic death.

wow, when i first saw this image i was thinking these where two people inlove, or closley connected by the way they where placed, although this is a picture of two skeleton’s, it has a freakishly beautiful look to it, looks more like art =]

this is amazing and so heart warming. i can just imaging the last words that hung in the air before they fell asleep for the last time, “i love you,” these two are an inspiration to all those who have found or are searching for true love. and definitely an inspiration to me, no matter what the circumstances are that they lived or died under. just the fact that they died in each other’s arms suggests that there is faithfulness to the end…to the very end.

Wow! Researching the play Romeo and Juliet, I decided to google Verona and Mantua and found this image! I heard something about this burial site but never realized in was in Mantua! It is a peculiar coincidence that Shakespeare set his story around those places and that tragic and romantic burial site was found there, too.

this is an amazing picture… it has so much eerie feeling to it. it creeps me out but warms my heart at the same time. which is why it is so eerie. and its close to halloween… which makes it even creepier. romantic death, tragic romance, irony… whatever you call it, it is a beautiful, inspiring, impressive picture.

this image is so sweet and so tragic at the same time. you can almost imagen what they would have looked like before thier bodies had decomposed, the position illustrating this desperation to never let go, it’s just so sad….

Sweet yes, but, recent study showed that there was a arrow shaft logged in the spine of the male on the left. The other body had a arrow shaft in the ribs. It is speculated that they were both put to death as a wish of the one, the other may have been a slave lover. Oh and the pelvic area showed that they both may have been male and not male and female. However this conclusion is still under study as the one pelvis was crushed and needs to be reconstructed before a final determination is made here. The dig also turned up lots of artifacts that also are under study. Coins were found that help to date the site, as well as pottery shards, and day to day items. So It will be some time before a conclusion is final on this dig site.

it cant be romeo and juliet because they didnt die together and they didnt die in maunta they died in verona.romeo and juliet is also a made up story.juliet pretended to be dead the n romeo died then juliet killed herself

Sheesh, Dr. G, way to kill the romance. You made me laugh. Thanks for the facts. I know you’re probably right, what with the PhD and all, but I’m not going to lie; I may still cling to the idea that these two died of broken hearts, or a dangerous excess of love, or something else nice and Hallmark-y. I’m a girl.

if you look closely at the larger skeleton on left (i think this skeleton of the two was the male because of the size comparison to the other) and follow his arm, you can see that his hand is right next to the smaller skeletons face as if touching it before dieing…they died looking into eachothers eyea and embracing eachother…how amazing…<3…the love between these to lasted til the seconded they died.

This is so beautiful. It’s sad yes, but beautiful because through out time they have still stayed together. This picutre took my breath away the first time I saw it and it still does. They were very close and probably in love when this happened to them.

This is stunning. I can feel thier love. The thing that I notice the most is the eye contact between them. It is so strong, probably because they didn’t want to look at whay would soon cause their death. I can feel the time that they were in. The whole thing makes me smile. feel the warmth

Is it just me …. does anyone else feel strongly about archaeological environmental issues and ethics ??? To seperate these ‘lovers’ and put them on display in Mantua’s Museum is wrong !! Leave them in eternal peace

could it also be possible that they were buried alive, and held each other in their final moments? or would someone really go out of their way to place them in that position? but i guess they could have dies like that first, and then been buried… it also has a strange feel and resemblance to some of the victims that died when mt. vesuvius erupted so many years ago….. smell ya laterz

29. Roger – November 28, 2008
Archaeology will out. It may be a few years before conclusions can be published. As for the thought they should be reburied I’m not of that opinion. Re-entombing King Tut and sealing off the pyramids is not for me.

I find it sad that no one had already pointed this out, but Romeo and Juliet were fictional characters! These skeletons can’t “really” be them, because they weren’t real people! Hit up your local library and have a librarian explain the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

When i first saw this i started crying..The archeologist should just leave in them in peace, they want to be together in eachothers harms.. if you and your wife or husband died in eachothers harms you wouldn’t want to be seperated would you!!!!

They must couple of people who really helped each other, loved each other and died together. No need to be a romeo or a juliet. You just need to be ahuman, and know another well enough to love him or her.

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